A COUPLE have revealed how they travelled to 14 countries – and only spent £1 a day.
Andrea Meszaros, 33, and Tobias Svensson, 33, spent a year travelling through Latin America, and only spent £500 during those 12 months.
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The couple, who met through mutual friends, had already visited Sweden, Hungry, and Denmark together, but they were keen to backpack somewhere they’d never been before.
Inspired by friends and family, Andrea and Toby decided to head to Latin America – but on a budget.
Andrea told Sun Online Travel: “We had been talking about this trip for a long time, we’d been together for six years and always talked about doing something big.”
“We wanted to see what was the least amount of money that we could spend and still be happy. We asked ourselves: can we do this on nothing?”
The couple first flew to Chile on January 1, 2022, and decided to cut costs as soon as they landed.
She said: “We covered our transport costs by hitchhiking, so we didn’t pay for any of the travel costs.”
The entrepreneur recalled one journey where they travelled with a truck driver for five days.
Before setting out on their lengthy journey, the man and his wife invited Andrea and Tobias for dinner where they ate food together and drank beers.
While they were on the road, he gave them a bed where they could sleep as well as more food.
Another man, who they hitched a lift with, invited them to stay on his yacht in Buenos Aires and cooked them “the best steak in the world” on his BBQ.
To save on accommodation, they also went wild camping for free in places like Peru.
But in places where wild camping wasn’t permitted, the couple slept in churches or found lodgings with the kind drivers who’d given them lifts.
Andrea added: “People were just so kind to us, which was a big revelation.”
While the couple managed to source free transport and accommodation, their food costs were a different story.
She said: “I won’t lie, sometimes we didn’t eat all day but plenty of drivers were kind to us and offered us some of their bread.
“We didn’t force anyone to give us food, people were just kind.”
As Tobias and Andrea adapted to the lifestyle, they began volunteering in exchange for accommodation and food.
They used programmes like Workaway to swap their skills for a comfy bed and a hearty meal.
If these opportunities weren’t obviously advertised, they offered their skills such as digital marketing and piano playing to potential beds for the night.
Andrea added: “On some days we didn’t spend any money, but on others, we’d treat ourselves to an ice cream for around 50p.”
“I think we spent roughly £1 per day, and for the whole year we spent no more than £500.”
In total, Andrea and Tobias visited 14 countries including Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, and Colombia.
The couple’s overall spending included their return flights to the UK as well as a flight from Peru to Mexico.
She said: “We enjoyed our slow travel adventure because it was more sustainable and we really got to know where we were staying because we interacted with locals.”
They also documented their trip on their Instagram page and YouTube Channel.
Even though the couple are staying put for the moment, other travel plans are on the horizon.
Andrea added: “We’d like to take a campervan and drive through Africa, but let’s see.”
Tobias and Andrea aren’t the only holidaymakers who travel on a shoestring budget.
Lizzi Seear, 51, has been going on free trips with her partner Alun Westoll, 52, for the last six years after she learnt about house swapping.
Lizzi previously told the Sun Online Travel: “I’ve stayed in some amazing places including a two-week stay in Bali.
“I got to stay in a private two-bed villa in Bali that had its own private pool and a housekeeper who came with breakfast every morning.”
She’s also bagged free accommodation in Italy, Spain, Germany, Hungary, and Finland.
Meanwhile, Keith Barker has also used house sitting programmes to travel the world for free.
In the last 15 years, he’s lived in Mexico, Hawaii, Panama, and Portugal without spending a penny on hotels and other accommodation options.
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